Young Americans

Led by host Jack Butler, of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, an ever-shifting cast of young, (mostly) right-leaning millennials discuss the news and culture of the day, offering unique insight on things people their age are actually experiencing.

We’ve all heard the stereotypes about Millennials: They’re jobhoppers, they’re unhappy, they’re unmarried, they’re obsessed with brunch, etc. But how many of these are true, and how many of them are just made-up? To find out, Jack invites Lyman Stone, himself a Millennial, onto the show to use his expertise in demography and sociology to sort fact from fiction.

As Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren tries to bribe college students into voting for her with promises of student loan debt forgiveness and free college, the Young Americans draw from their own experiences to discuss Warren’s plan, the student loan debt crisis, and what, if anything, we can do about it.

The Young Americans bring their first young non-American onto the show, as National Review’s Madeleine Kearns, who hails from Scotland, discusses the ins and outs of transgenderism and young people with Jack.

As Facebook celebrates its 15th anniversary, it is coming into controversies on all sides: political, psychological, social, and more. Thus, Jack assembles a panel of youth to discuss their own experiences with Facebook and how it has affected them. They also reveal their thoughts about the site’s effect on themselves, their peers, and society as a whole.

It’s a good question, isn’t it? To answer it, Jack invites actual young person journalist Philip Wegmann, now a political reporter for Real Clear News, to attempt to justify himself. They also discuss whether young people are consuming news correctly, and give advice for young people aspiring to be journalists and to be just generally informed citizens.

What do young people think about abortion? Are Millennials turning into godless heathens? With abortion and religion in the headlines, Host Jack Butler explores where young people stand on these areas and speculates on how they will develop as issues in the future, with the help of National Review staff writer Alexandra DeSanctis.

In a Young Americans first, Jack and co return to a previously-addressed topic: video games. But we’re not just running out of ideas; rather, inspired by the release of Kingdom Hearts III, which recovering gamer Jack is tempted to relapse to buy and play, the panelists discuss whether it is possible to game responsibly or if obsessive playing is inevitable.

The Young Americans return for another year of charting Millennial neuroses by starting out with the topic on everyone’s mind: marriage. Specifically, why aren’t Millennials getting married? To help figure out why, (single) host Jack Butler consults another single person, an engaged person, and a married couple.

In their last episode of the year, the Young Americans arrive at the topic all Internet content gets to eventually: Jordan Peterson. And they do it in-person, a first for this podcast, discussing 12 Rules For Life, Jordan Peterson’s best-selling book, as well as his message and personality more generally.

Mayonnaise. Home Depot. Breakfast. Lunch. Vacations. Golf. Like some assiduous predator stalking in the cultural night, the Millennial generation has killed each of these things, one by one…or has it? The latest episode takes up the trend of Millennials’ killing things, such as the aforementioned items, and tries to determine whether their guilt is fair or misplaced. Each guest also picks a thing they hope Millennials do kill.

Also, the Young Americans proudly sell out once again, as this episode is brought to you by Simple Contacts.

Is America going to pot? Probably. In response to recreational marijuana recently being made legal in Canada and Michigan, and record numbers of Americans supporting legalization, the Young Americans debate whether we should celebrate these trends or be more skeptical of them. Call it a “pot-cast.”

Goo goo g’joob! As The Beatles (a.k.a., The White Album) reaches its 50th anniversary, the Young Americans take some time on a hard day’s night to have a long and winding discussion about whether The Beatles really are the greatest band of all time (the answer is yes), and whether they still matter and should be in your life (the answer is also yes).

Boo! Sorry, did that scare you? Hopefully not. Because if it did, you might not be able to handle this special Halloween episode of the Young Americans. Jack and the gang discuss their most Millennial fears, their favorite horror movies, and whether horror can be respected as a genre or not. And if this episode scares you too much, please make use of the services of our first-ever sponsor: Calm.com, an all-purpose relaxation website and app.

This month, the gamer known as “Ninja” became the first “esports” “athlete” to grace the front cover of ESPN Magazine. As “esports”–i.e., playing video games in a professional competitive setting–grow in popularity, the Young Americans debate whether this portends ill for their cohort, and wonder if video games are taking over society as a whole.

In an episode of multiple firsts, Jack strikes out on his own to interview Matthew Hennessey, the deputy op-ed editor of the Wall Street Journal, author of Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from Millennials, and, at 44, a decidedly un-young American. They discuss whether Millennials or Baby Boomers are really to blame for America’s problems, whether Gen X can save us, and whether generational warfare might ultimately be a distraction from the real enemy: excessive technology.

Don’t let the title fool you: This is not a soap opera episode of the Young Americans. But it does cover one of the most important things in the world: children. Specifically, why young people are having fewer of them, and later. Host Jack Butler and veteran YA panelist Caleb Whitmer explore this topic with the help of two new panelists: Kayla Stetzel, and Weekly Standard factchecker Holmes Lybrand, who is now a father.

As the Young Americans find themselves in the dog days of summer, they wonder whether the “fur-ternity leave” now offered by some companies proves that young people love dogs too much. And with summer coming to a close, they also give some advice for college students going back to school or heading there for the first time.

The latest episode of the Young Americans is brought to you by Ricochet (of course), and by the concept of ownership: of libs, an increasingly popular posture on the right, including among young conservatives, and of homes, which young people are apparently not buying. The Young Americans attempt to explore and explain both of these trends, while learning in the end that what mattered most was the friends they made along the way. (Awww…)

In their third episode, the Young Americans take the occasion of the recent New York primary victory of 28-year-old self-declared socialist Millennial Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to wonder if their peers really are all socialists now, or are just going through a phase. They also reflect on the 10th anniversary of The Dark Knight and debate whether it is the best blockbuster released in their (so far relatively short) lifetimes.